US Patent Issued to HARMONIC DRIVE SYSTEMS on Oct. 14 for "Lubricating structure for gear tooth surface" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,442,445, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to HARMONIC DRIVE SYSTEMS INC. (Tokyo).

"Lubricating structure for gear tooth surface" was invented by Norio Shirokoshi (Azumino, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In each of tooth tip surfaces of internal teeth of an internally toothed gear and external teeth of an externally toothed gear of a strain wave gearing, lubricant passage grooves are formed at fixed intervals along the tooth trace direction. Each of the lubricant passage grooves is an inclined groove that extends in a direction inclined to one side in the tooth trace direction. The inclined grooves facilitate the flow of the lubrican...